Sirtaki or syrtaki (συρτάκι) is a popular dance of Greek origin, created in 1964 for the movie Zorba the Greek. It is not a traditional Greek folkdance, but a mixture of slow and fast versions of the hasapiko dance. The dance and the music (by Míkis Theodorakis) are also called Zorbá's dance, Zorbas, or "the dance of Zorbas^[1]". Dance (from French danser, perhaps from Frankish) generally refers to movement used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Zorba the Greek is a 1964 movie by Michael Cacoyannis, originally titled Alexis Zorbas, based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. ... Greek dance is a very old and common tradition from the ancient land of Greece. ... Hasapiko (Greek χασάπικο, also transliterated hassapiko, hasapika and hasapico) is a Greek traditional dance. ... Mikis Theodorakis Mikis Theodorakis (Greek: Μίκης Θεοδωράκης) (b. ...

The name Sirtáki comes from the Greek word syrtos, a common name for a group of traditional Cretan dances of so-called "dragging" or "shuffling" style, as opposed to pidikhtos, a hopping or leaping style. Despite that, Sirtaki incorporates both syrtos (in its slower part) and pidikhtós (in its faster part) elements.

Choreography

Sirtáki is danced in a line or circle formation with hands held on neighbours' shoulders. Line formation is more traditional. A line dance is a formation dance in which a group of people dance in one or more lines (British English, rows), executing the same movements. ... Circle dance, is the most common name for a style of traditional dance usually done in a circle without partners to musical accompaniment. ...

Meter is 4/4, tempo increasing, and often the signature is changed to 2/2 in the fastest part. Accordingly, the dance begins with slower, smoother actions, gradually transforming into faster, vivid ones, often including hops and leaps. Metre or meter (US) is the measurement of a musical line into measures of stressed and unstressed beats, indicated in Western music notation by a symbol called a time signature. ...

Notes

1. ^ the nominative of "Zorba"

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1968Bo8HXc The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments. ...